taking pills against headaches can cause more frequent headaches

[darkoshi]

AAFP: Tension-Type Headache

Patients with chronic tension-type headache should limit their use of analgesics to two times weekly to prevent the development of chronic daily headache. If the patient requires analgesic medication more frequently, adjunctive headache medications can be initiated.

Cleveland Clinic: Tension-Type Headaches

There is no single cause for tension-type headaches. This type of headache syndrome is not a trait that runs in families. In some people, tension-type headaches are associated with tightened muscles in the back of the neck and scalp. This muscle tension may be exacerbated by:

Inadequate rest
Poor posture
Emotional or mental stress, including depression

Tension-type headaches can be triggered by some type of environmental or internal stress.

Cleveland Clinic: Rebound Headaches

The overuse or misuse of analgesic medications — exceeding labeling instructions (such as taking the medications three or more days per week) or not following your physician's advice — can cause you to "rebound" into another headache.
...
Analgesic overuse appears to interfere with the brain centers that regulate the flow of pain messages to the nervous system, worsening headache pain.

This rebound syndrome is especially dangerous if your medication contains caffeine, which is often included in many medications to speed up the reaction of the other ingredients. While it can be beneficial, caffeine in medications, combined with consuming caffeine (coffee, tea, soft drinks, or chocolate) from other sources, makes you more vulnerable to a rebound headache.
...
While small amounts of these medications per week may be safe (and effective), at some point, the continued medication use leads to the development of low-grade headaches that just will not go away.

Mayo Clinic: Rebound Headaches - Risk Factors

Your risk increases if you use combination analgesics, ergotamine or triptans 10 or more days a month or simple analgesics more than 15 days a month — especially if this regular use continues for three or more months.

Does Caffeine Cause or Cure Headaches? - On its own, it can alleviate some headache pain. It also causes pain relief medication to be absorbed better and faster. It can result in caffeine withdrawal headaches and rebound headaches.

How Much Caffeine is in Chocolate? - has a chart comparing dark chocolate's chocolate percentage (43 - 100%) versus caffeine content.

1 oz of 70% chocolate, which isn't unusual for me to eat, has about 40mg caffeine. That's similar to the caffeine content of a can of regular cola or a bottle of iced tea. A cup of coffee can have 100mg or more.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

We bought an emergency bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans in the houston airport a couple of hours ago for headache suppression. They were expensive for espresso beans, but cheap as regards things that actually stop her headaches.

[darkoshi]

Hah, I was reading about them before. This page: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/27/caffeine-compared-coke-coffee-aspirin-chocolate-tea
shows chocolate covered coffee beans as having a heck of a lot of caffeine. But it also shows milk chocolate covered raisins having a significant amount, which I'm dubious about. The linked spreadsheet where they got the data from shows milk chocolate covered raisins having 9 times as much caffeine as milk chocolate covered peanuts.

My mom gave me dark chocolate covered coffee beans a while back. We're both sensitive to caffeine, and they were too strong for her. I liked the taste, but I only ate the chocolate and spit out the beans, because I didn't want insomnia.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I'm dubious about the raisin results, yeah. But the espresso beans are serious medicine. Two of those and she's pretty much wired for the whole day.